Match the Best Supporting Actress - 1970s Quiz

Answer: Helen Hayes

Helen Hayes picked up the second and last Oscar of her career for her role as charming stowaway Ada Quonsett in "Airport". She had one previous nomination and win in the Best Actress category for "The Sin of Madelon Claudet" in 1931. The 39 years between her awards was the longest gap between Academy Award wins to that date.

She was also the first performer to win Oscars in both the Best and Best Supporting categories. "Airport" was the first of the star-studded disaster films of the 1970s. In the film, Quonsett was a professional stowaway who used her age and charm to wheedle her way onto free flights. Unfortunately on this flight, she was seated next to a suicidal man who planned to blow up the plane.

The other nominees in the category were Karen Black ("Five Easy Pieces"), Lee Grant ("The Landlord"), Sally Kellerman ("M*A*S*H"), and Maureen Stapleton ("Airport").

Answer: Cloris Leachman

With her first Academy Award nomination, Cloris Leachman won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her role as lonely wife Ruth Popper in "The Last Picture Show". The coming-of-age, Korean War-era film took place in a small Texas town where a group of teens were finishing their last year of high school. Popper sought refuge from her dysfunctional marriage by having an affair with one of the teens (Timothy Bottoms) before he dumped her for the town beauty (Cybill Shepherd, in her film debut).

The other Best Supporting Actress contenders were Ann-Margret ("Carnal Knowledge"), Ellen Burstyn ("The Last Picture Show"), Barbara Harris ("Who is Harry Kellerman and Why is He Saying Those Terrible Things About Me?"), and Margaret Leighton ("The Go-Between").

Answer: Eileen Heckart

At the forty-fifth Academy Awards ceremony, Eileen Heckart won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her role as controlling Mrs. Baker in "Butterflies are Free", a role she originated on Broadway. She had previously been nominated in the same category for "The Bad Seed" in 1956.

In the film, Baker was the mother of a blind man, Don (Edward Albert, the son of Eddie Albert), who moved to an apartment to live on his own. When he embarked on a relationship with a free-spirited neighbor (Goldie Hawn), Mrs. Baker had to either protect him or let him go.

The other contenders for the award were Jeannie Berlin ("The Heartbreak Kid"), Geraldine Page ("Pete 'n' Tilly"), Susan Tyrrell ("Fat City"), and Shelley Winters ("The Poseidon Adventure").

Answer: Tatum O'Neal

In her film debut, Tatum O'Neal picked up the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her role as precocious Addie Loggins in "Paper Moon". At 10 years of age, she was the youngest winner in a competitive category to that date, and with screen time of over an hour, her performance was the longest to win a supporting actor/actress Oscar to that date.

In the Depression-era film, con artist Moze (Ryan O'Neal, Tatum's father) agreed to drive the young orphan Addie to her aunt in Missouri, but along the way, Addie became a willing partner in Moze's scams.

The other Best Supporting Actress nominees were Linda Blair ("The Exorcist"), Candy Clark ("American Graffiti"), Madeline Kahn ("Paper Moon"), and Sylvia Sidney ("Summer Wishes, Winter Dreams").

Answer: Ingrid Bergman

Ingrid Bergman won her third Oscar for her role as timid missionary Greta Ohlsson in "Murder on the Orient Express". Her previous nominations had all been in the Best Actress category: "For Whom the Bell Tolls" in 1944, "Gaslight" in 1945, "The Bells of St. Mary's" in 1946, "Joan of Arc" in 1949, and "Anastasia" in 1957, and she won the Oscar for "Gaslight" and "Anastasia".

In the star-studded adaption of the Agatha Christie novel, Ohlsson was a Swedish missionary and one of the suspects interrogated by Hercule Poirot (Albert Finney) in the murder of an American businessman (Richard Widmark).

The other Best Supporting Actress contenders were Valentina Cortese ("Day for Night"), Madeline Kahn ("Blazing Saddles"), Diane Ladd ("Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore"), and Talia Shire ("The Godfather, Part II").

Answer: Lee Grant

With her third Academy Award nomination, Lee Grant won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her role as bored upper-class wife Felicia Karpf in "Shampoo". She had previously been nominated in the same category for "Detective Story" in 1952 and "The Landlord" in 1971.

In "Shampoo", Karpf was one of several women juggled by hairdresser George (Warren Beatty). George's main interest in her was getting her wealthy husband (Jack Warden) to finance a new salon, which she eventually realized as both men pursued another woman (Julie Christie).

The other nominees in the category were Ronee Blakely ("Nashville"), Sylvia Miles ("Farewell, My Lovely"), Lily Tomlin ("Nashville"), and Brenda Vaccaro ("Jacqueline Susann's Once is Not Enough").

Answer: Beatrice Straight

With her sole Academy Award nomination, Beatrice Straight picked up the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her role as scorned wife Louise Schumacher in "Network". At under six minutes, her performance was the shortest screen time to date to win an acting Oscar; she basically won the Oscar for her heart-wrenching outburst after her husband (William Holden) told her he was in love with another woman.

In "Network", her husband was a television network president who became involved with a ratings-obsessed co-worker (Faye Dunaway).

The other contenders in the category were Jane Alexander ("All the President's Men"), Jodie Foster ("Taxi Driver"), Lee Grant ("Voyage of the Damned"), and Piper Laurie ("Carrie").

Answer: Vanessa Redgrave

At the fiftieth Academy Award ceremony, Vanessa Redgrave won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for portraying the title role in "Julia". She had three prior nominations, all in the Best Actress category: "Morgan: A Suitable Case for Treatment" in 1967, "Isadora" in 1969, and "Mary, Queen of Scots" in 1972. Redgrave was a controversial nominee because she recently had funded a pro-Palestinian documentary about the Palestine Liberation Organization, which led the Jewish Defense League to picket the Academy Awards because of her, but she received warm applause when she received the award.

However, she did receive boos in her acceptance speech when she mentioned the words "Zionist hoodlums". She paid tribute to her Hollywood colleagues who had "refused to be intimidated by the threats of a small bunch of Zionist hoodlums whose behavior is an insult to the stature of Jews all over the world and to their great and heroic record of struggle against Fascism and oppression... And I pledge to you that I will continue to fight against anti-Semitism and Fascism".

But when screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky later came on stage to present the Academy Awards for screenplays, he said that he was "sick and tired of people exploiting the occasion of the Academy Awards for the propagation of their own political propaganda. I would like to suggest to Ms. Redgrave that her winning an Academy Award is not a pivotal moment in history, does not require a proclamation, and a simple 'thank you' would have sufficed". In the WWII-era "Julia", Lillian Hellman (Jane Fonda) and her childhood friend Julia enjoyed a wealthy, carefree adolescence, but when Julia went to university in Vienna, she was caught up in the anti-Nazi cause, and she enlisted Lillian to help. The film also featured Jason Robards as Dashiell Hammett, Hal Holbrook, Maximilian Schell, and Meryl Streep, in her film debut. The other Best Supporting Actress nominees were Leslie Browne ("The Turning Point"), Quinn Cummings ("The Goodbye Girl"), Melinda Dillon ("Close Encounters of the Third Kind"), and Tuesday Weld ("Looking for Mr. Goodbar").

Answer: Maggie Smith

Maggie Smith picked up her second Academy Award for her role as actress Diana Barrie in "California Suite". She had previously won in the Best Actress category for "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie" in 1970 and had nominations in the Best Supporting Actress category for "Othello" in 1966 and in the Best Actress category for "Travels with My Aunt" in 1973. For her role as Barrie, Smith became the first performer to win an Academy Award for portraying an Academy Award nominee/loser. "California Suite" was a star-studded film based on a Neil Simon play about various guests in a luxury Los Angeles hotel. Barrie was at the hotel for the Academy Awards ceremony and was dealing with nerves over her career and her sham marriage to a formerly closeted gay antique dealer (Michael Caine).

The other contenders for the Oscar were Dyan Cannon ("Heaven Can Wait"), Penelope Milford ("Coming Home"), Maureen Stapleton ("Interiors"), and with her first Academy Award nomination, Meryl Streep ("The Deer Hunter").

Answer: Meryl Streep

With her second nomination, Meryl Streep won her first Oscar for her role as unhappy wife Joanna Kramer in "Kramer vs. Kramer". She had been nominated in the same category the previous year for "The Deer Hunter". In "Kramer vs. Kramer", Joanna walked out on her family, leaving her workaholic husband (Dustin Hoffman) to raise their young son (Justin Henry).

When she returned over a year later to get her son, a nasty custody battle ensued. The other Best Supporting Actress nominees were Jane Alexander ("Kramer vs. Kramer"), Barbara Barrie ("Breaking Away"), Candice Bergen ("Starting Over"), and Mariel Hemingway ("Manhattan").